Category: today’s word
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Today's word: celeb/סלב
So the Globes article I was interviewed for came out today: My first Israeli 15 minutes of fame… You might call me a סלב (pronounced ‘celeb’). Can you guess what it means? Creative, I know. UPDATE: Here’s the section of the article where I yap about Facebook. It’s the best I could do, they don’t…
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Today's Word: Senior/בכיר.
In the past week I have read articles and received emails concerning the strike-affected academic schedule and peppered among all of them is the word בכיר (bachir), meaning ‘senior’, as in ‘senior professor’. Only senior professors are striking, because they are the ones being affected by the paycheck problems. Other professors get paid according to…
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On survival and today's word: ניצולי שואה.
I have good days and bad days. Lately they’ve been bad, but today is alright. I’m referring specifically to that still-beating juk I call: “speaking Hebrew without a complex.” I made a pact with myself last week to only email my Bar Ilan professors in Hebrew from now on. Writing in Hebrew has never been…
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Today's word: kora'at b'tachat.
Today’s word is brought to you by Amnon, a cheeky classmate (translated from Hebrew). Me: Were you in class this morning? Amnon: You could say that. Me: Did she say anything about the paper? Amnon: She said a lot of things about the paper. You want to know what we need to do? Me: Yeah,…
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Today's Word: מתיחות
Today’s word is brought to you by my new hip hop class. As mentioned, I started taking dance classes. I learned last Monday that I don’t mix well with organized dance. On Friday I decided to go with something a little bit looser, so I joined a street hip hop class. It was a lot…
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Word of the day: Hafgana.
I joined over 100,000 other disgruntled Israelis to protest and rally against the current government. The truth is, I was there more to observe than to voice my opinion; I let my body exist in Rabin Square to do the talking but I kept my mouth shut. I’m feeling very numb about the whole thing.…
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Today's word: חברה
The first time I watched Adi Ashkenazi was when she did a bit on the chevre: what it is, where you find one, what it’s like to be a part of one. A chevre (חברה) is your group, company, your mates, whatever little society you are a part of. It might be the kids you…
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Today's word: שלג (snow)
An oldie, but always a fun one. Anyone who wasn’t asleep in Hebrew school knows this one, too:שלג = sheleg = snow I bring it up because, oddly enough, this is a popular name for dogs in this country. Well, two kinds of dogs: 1. White dogs.2. Black dogs. A white dog named “sheleg” exposes…
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Today's word: שערות סבתא
Last night we strolled through the municipality’s Coffee, Chocolate and Book fair on Emek Refaim. When I spied a little kid with a HUGE cotton candy, my head said ‘oh, no!’ and my tongue said ‘wheeeee!’ שערות סבתא: Cotton candy is referred to as “Grandmother’s hair” which, when you think about it, makes a lot…
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Today's word: שטויות ומיץ עגבניות
שטויות ומיץ עגבניות This one is intangible so I’m not sure how to describe it; basically: That’s crap – even more than crap. Commonwealthies can substitute ‘crap’ for ‘rubbish’. Literally it means: Crap(rubbish) and tomato juice. The ‘tomato juice’ emphasizes the ridiculousness of the whole thing. Anyway, I bring it up because, though I learned…